The pre-show buzz? This AES was gonna be big. And despite constant rains and a (somewhat dubious) terrorist subway attack scare, the show delivered — big time. With 452 exhibitors and more than 20,000 attendees jamming the aisles, business was booming and the joint was packed. At one point, it was so crowded that a bystander commented that AES looked like “Winter NAMM crowds, without the tattoos and piercings.”

“It's nice that this show still exists, as a good portion of the record business seems to have been sucked down the Internet,” said Bob Clearmountain, who was preparing his lecture on “the good and bad effects of the Internet on the recording/mixing business.” Indeed, everyone seems to be showing signs of adapting to the changing model of the recording industry. As in the year's earlier shows, there was increased presence from the likes of Apple, Intel, Texas Instruments and AMD, who continue to push brand visibility in the pro audio market.

While this AES wasn't rife with earth-shattering debuts, the consensus is the bar has been raised and the overall quality level of products at the show was at a high. Not a lot of dogs here.

Once relegated to the fossil section of the Natural History Museum, big consoles are back. New company co-owner Peter Gabriel was at AES to help launch the C300, SSL's (www.solid-state-logic.com) digital console for fast, assignable sweetening and mixing. Previewed in last month's Mix, the C300 includes multiple layers of DAW control in a scalable package that can range from 16 to 128 faders controlling up to 512 channels/80 buses and up to three-operator configurations.

AMS Neve (www.ams-neve.com) announced its digital 88D music production console, which combines a 1,000-track, 96kHz DSP engine with Neve preamps, multisource 8.1 monitoring, Encore Plus automation, Pro Tools/Pyramix/Nuendo integration, classic EQ and dynamics plug-ins, and the power of 40-bit floating-point processing. But what really turned heads at AES was its 8816, a 16×2 (and cascadable for more) summing box in a 2U case. Sweet!

Fairlight's (www.fairlightau.com) Constellation-Anthem console blends a familiar analog-style music console surface with the power of digital. “It combines three mixing paradigms in one console,” says Fairlight's John Lancken, “a classic split mode with 48 inputs and 96 monitor returns, a traditional in-line console with up to 96 long faders and 96 short faders, and a Constellation post-production mode. The console reconfigures in seven seconds for a new task, so studios can diversify their business opportunities and operations to do music, film, television and post — all on one platform.”

Harrison's (www.glw.com) Trion digital console made its AES debut. It's offered in versions for film/video post, broadcast and live, and features a traditional surface rather than a central, shared-knobs approach. Running on the company's IKIS^™ platform, Trion uses a 15-inch monitor for every eight faders, offering a view of each channel's information, along with Harrison's PreView^™ waveform envelope display.

The first console from Oram Digital Developments (www.oram.co.uk) is The Light, a co-design of John Oram and Dr. Danish Ali. The mixer offers recallable, fully automated digital control over high-end analog electronics, can double as a controller for DAWs and is priced from $57,800. Oram also announced The Movies retrofit console moving fader automation, with 40 channels priced around $17,500.

AES shows seem to move in trends. A year ago, tape was pretty much declared dead. Well, fuggitaboutit! Tape seems to have made a resurgence in terms of new sources. Quantegy (www.quantegy.com) showed a full line of studio products, with GP9, 499, 456 and a range of digital, from DASH to ADAT stock. Those whose tastes run to Euro flavors were pleased to see RMGI (www.rmgi-usa.com) showing favorite Emtec formulations, beginning with ¼-inch SM911, to be followed later with SM900 and others. And ATR Magnetics (www.nothingsoundliketape.com) — a spin-off of ATR Service Corp. — previewed its lines of pro analog tape in all widths due to come from a new state-of-the-art facility. This revival is great news, especially for those of us who crave that fat, sweet sound of analog tape. Just don't forget to print alignment tones on the head of your next project!

Digidesign's (www.digidesign.com) Pro Tools 7 has Windows XP and Mac OS X versions for Pro Tools|HD, LE and M-Powered systems. Features include all-new Instrument Tracks for improved integration with virtual instruments and MIDI sound modules, new real-time MIDI processing, REX and ACID file support, host processing optimization for running more instances of RTAS processing/instrument plug-ins and a streamlined, reorganized menu structure.

Steinberg's (www.steinberg.net) Cubase SE3 is a steal at $159, especially with 48 audio and unlimited MIDI tracks, 32-bit audio engine offering 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback — including delay compensation — and a full range of VST instruments, virtual effects and MIDI effects.

When are you going 64-bit? Probably faster than you think. Cakewalk (www.cakewalk.com) is leading the revolution by shipping the 64-bit SONAR 5, and other manufacturers are following suit, including Open Labs' (www.openlabs.com) NeKo Gen2 keyboard workstations and Edirol's (www.edirol.com) new 64-bit drivers.

“Most of you don't have x64 systems yet, but trust me, within the next year or two you will,” says Cakewalk's Ron Kuper. “Every new CPU being made by Intel and AMD is going to be 64-bit — capable. And the performance gains are huge and worth the transition.” Kuper cites benchmark tests in which SONAR ran 10 to 30 percent faster on the same box in x64 mode when compared to x86 mode. That 1-terabyte RAM capability doesn't hurt things, either. In other developments, a 64-bit double-precision mix engine is now available in all versions of SONAR.

Dolby Media Producer is a Mac OS 10.3 “Tiger” suite of HD and DVD creation tools from Dolby (www.dolby.com). The package includes Dolby Media Encoder, Dolby Media Decoder and Dolby Media Tools. Each software app is available separately or as a suite and handles codec and metadata chores in Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, MLP and Dolby True HD, for compatibility with Blu-ray, HD-DVD and standard DVD formats.

Yeah, it has a hot new console, but SSL's new LMC-1 plug-in, based on the Listen Mic Compressor from the SL 4000 Series console series, was the surprise booth hit. “Over 2,000 customers in the first 48 hours make this one of the most popular products we've ever launched,” notes SSL's Niall Feldman. Part of the success may be due to the fact that it's free — at least for now.

CEDAR (www.cedaraudio.com) joins the Pro Tools PC crowd, offering Retouch, Declip and Auto-Dehiss from its Cambridge workstation. Available as AudioSuite plug-ins on the Pro Tools (PC) platform, each process is quick and simple to use.

Waves (www.waves.com) debuted two new native format plug-ins: Tune advanced pitch-correction ($600) and DeBreath ($350), which can identify and remove unwanted breath sounds from voice or narration tracks. Tune offers deep user control for editing and defining any pitch work with a simple piano roll interface; DeBreath can operate nearly automatically, while offering complete manual control.

Indecisive plug-in shopper? The UAD-1 Flexi-Pak from Universal Audio (www.uaudio.com) gives you the accelerator card, throws in some staple effects and lets you flesh out the bundle by auditioning from the online library and using the included $500 voucher to pay for the goodies you want.

Drawbar tweakers, rejoice! Native Instruments' (www.nativeinstruments.com) many new AES debuts included the B4 II, featuring an overhauled rotary speaker section and cool extras such as realistic tone wheel leakage. New from IK Multimedia (www.ikmultimedia.com), AmpliTube 2 models more than 80 guitar amps, cabinets and more. IK also released details of its first hardware product, the AmpliTube StompIO USB foot controller. Spectrasonics (www.spectrasonics.net) debuted a 1.5 update for its Stylus RMX, which adds Windows RTAS support, hundreds of new patches and an embedded help system. The company was also showing its New Orleans Strut Library, giving 100 percent of that product's proceeds to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims.

BIAS' (www.bias-inc.com) Master Perfection Suite collection, originally released in Peak Pro XT 5, will be available stand-alone next quarter. McDSP (www.mcdsp.com) showed Revolver 1, a cool new convolution reverb, and an LE version of the Analog Channel tape emulation plug-in.

M-Audio (www.m-audio.com) showed ProjectMix, an 18×14 control surface/FireWire interface, offering eight fader channels and transport controls, plus support for popular workstation apps (including, of course, the new Pro Tools 7 M-Powered).

Besides the existing pro-quality field recorders from Nagra, Sound Devices and Fostex, AES saw a number of new entries. Priced at $2,000, Sony's (www.sony.com/professional) PCM-D1 is a handheld stereo model featuring a titanium body, two condenser X/Y mics, 24/96 linear PCM recording, 4GB internal Flash memory, removable Memory Stick Pro storage and USB 2 interfacing. Tascam's (www.tascam.com) hi-def stereo HD-P2 records up to 192 kHz/24-bit to CompactFlash, with FireWire loading to your DAW. Also standard are XLR mic inputs with phantom, RCA analog I/O, S/PDIF digital I/O and a SMPTE input for timecode sync. The $499 M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 records stereo .WAV and MP3 files to microdrives or CompactFlash with USB 2 interfacing. The coolest mini recorder was HHB's (www.hhb.co.uk) FlashMic, which combines a Sennheiser omni condenser capsule, 48kHz/16-bit .WAV linear or MPEG 1 Layer 2 recording (stored to 1 GB of Flash memory) and USB offloads — all built within a handheld mic body.

JBL's (www.jblpro.com) LSR4300 Series brings its acclaimed RMC Room Mode Correction monitors to a new price point and adds new features. The 6-inch woofer LSR4326P ($1,399/pair) and 8-inch LSR4328P ($1,699/pair) use HiQnet networking, allowing all speakers to be controlled from the mix position via (included) software or a wireless remote. Parameters include global volume control, mute, solo and input switching from analog or 24-bit/96kHz digital sources. Speaker front baffles include a meter display and illuminated controls for all user functions. A companion sub is in the works.

Canada's Energy Speakers now has a pro division, run by former Tannoy N.A. head Bill Calma and distributed by Bryston (www.bryston.ca). EnergyPro's first offerings are the reference E7a ($1,295/pair) and E9a ($1,899/pair) powered two-way near-fields with analog and digital inputs. The monitors use digital user bits (rather than bit-rate reduction) to remotely control system volume, so listeners aren't subjected to 8-bit playbacks at low levels. Powered subs (with accelerometer control of cone motion) and passive monitors are also available.

E-mu (www.emu.com) enters the monitor world with its PM5 Precision Monitors ($349.99 each), bi-amplified near-fields featuring discrete Class-A input and MOSFET output stages. In a different direction, high-end monitor manufacturer ATC (www.atc.gb.net) announced the PA65ASL, an active three-way system designed for sound reinforcement and priced at $7,500/speaker.

Plug-ins were everywhere, but rack gear was hot. Here are a few of our faves: Groove Tubes (www.groovetubes.com) SuPRE stereo preamp removes a few frills (such as rise time control) from its ViPRE and puts two preamp/DIs based on its flagship into a $1,495 unit. Rupert Neve Designs (www.rupertneve.com) showed its Portico line, including the 5042 tape emulator/line driver and the 5043 stereo comp/limiter. The first non-tube product from Pendulum Audio (www.pendulumaudio.com), the PL-2 is a stand-alone version of the dual peak limiter in the company's popular Quartet II Tube Recording Channel, with a choice of MOSFET or JFET sounds.

Universal Audio's Solo Series tube Solo/610 and the Solo/110 Class-A mic single-channel mic pre/DI combos use the classic Putnam 610 and Precision 110 designs at an under-$1,000 tag. Part of Ivor Drawmer's signature series, the Drawmer (www.drawmer.com) S3 is a 3-band, stereo opto-compressor with 10 tubes in a Class-A design. Formed by industry vets, Bricasti Design (www.bricasti.com) is a new company with decades of experience. Its world-class M7 Stereo Reverb offers up to 192kHz clarity and 100 presets of classic and new ambiences. Manley Labs (www.manleylabs.com) unveiled the Langevin Mini-Massive Stereo Equalizer, based on the passive EQ sections of Manley's Massive Passive but in a 1U chassis and at $2,800 — about half the price.

Past shows have exhibited a lot of “every new mic looks the same,” yet this AES offered lots of new and different designs. The BLUE (www.bluemic.com) $1,699 OmniMouse puts a small omni condenser capsule within an M50-style spherical grille in a rotating mount. RØDE's (www.rodemics.com) $499 NT-6 is a small-diaphragm mic with the cardioid condenser capsule separated from the body by a 3-meter Kevlar-covered cable — ideal for hanging or difficult placements. Possibly the most awaited mic of all time, Schoeps (www.schoeps.de) finally unveiled its first shotgun, the CMIT 5U, which features a featherweight (3.125 ounce) design and blue-anodized housing. Breaking ground (at least from a price point) are DPA's (www.dpamicrophones.com) new 4090 and 4091 models, which are designed for capturing instruments and retail around $600.

Two years ago, you could nearly count all the ribbon mics in the industry on one hand; after this AES, the number nearly doubled. Crowley and Tripp (www.soundwaveresearch.com) showed The Vocalist, Soundstage Image and Proscenium — three U.S.-made ribbon models. SE Electronics (www.seelectronics.com) launched the $749 SE Ribbon model; Groove Tubes showed its Velo8; and Royer Labs (www.royerlabs.com) announced the R-122V tube ribbon mic, which takes the technology of its R-121 and R-122 combined with a triode-driven circuit to raise the mic's sensitivity to -29 dB. And to keep new and vintage ribbon mics sounding great, Wes Dooley of AEA (www.ribbonmics.com) unveiled a high-gain, no-phantom preamp optimized for ribbon mics with 84 dB of quiet gain.

New players in the live mic arena included audio legend Bob Heil demo'ing his Heil Sound (www.heilsound.com) PR40 cardioid dynamic with extended low end, while Bob Avenson of Avenson Audio (www.avensonaudio.com) announced the TVM, a cardioid tube condenser for handheld vocals.

We'll feature other cool debuts from AES in our new products section in the months to come. Meanwhile, AES returns to San Francisco from October 6 to 9, 2006. See you there!